Climate Change

Our climate is changing, with big implications for the building industry. BRANZ is working with partners to help the industry reduce greenhouse gas emissions and be better prepared to cope with the changes.

Climate patterns have always changed, but significant changes now under way have been attributed to human activities. Increasing levels of gases such as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from burning coal, oil and gas are acting like a greenhouse, lifting temperatures.

With greater awareness and focus on climate change as a result of its impact on people and the environment, it is becoming increasingly important to understand and mitigate causes, such as gas emissions. The built environment has a responsibility to adapt and mitigate the effects of its products and processes as it contributes 15-20% of the total greenhouse gas emissions in New Zealand, primarily made up of the long-lived gas carbon dioxide (CO2).

We need to mitigate emissions through adopting:

solutions and tools for designing and constructing buildings with a long useful life and low embodied carbon over their life cycle.

designing buildings so that they can be deconstructed for reuse or recycling and/or repurposed for the changing needs of future building users.

As part of the global effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, New Zealand has made a number of commitments. The key ones are:

The Paris Agreement, a United Nations initiative that commits us to achieving a 30% reduction of our 2005 greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. The agreement also aims to achieve net-zero carbon emissions between 2050 and 2100.

The Climate Change Response Act 2002, a New Zealand law amended in 2019 with a commitment to reduce net emissions of greenhouse gases (except methane from plants and animals) to zero by 2050.